


Larry One Shot // Based on Lyrics from Over Again

by 1D_1Shots



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 16:43:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4027273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1D_1Shots/pseuds/1D_1Shots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ah, Larry. Harry can't get it together and Louis is generally displeased.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Larry One Shot // Based on Lyrics from Over Again

**Author's Note:**

> This was requested by my beloved Samanbanana. :)

_Can we stop this for a minute?_  
_You know, I can tell that your heart isn’t in it, or with it._  
(Larry)

 

 

Whatever had gotten into his boot was still there.  Harry could feel it if he curled his toes just so. It was probably a stone or piece of debris, and he’d felt it before they’d gone on stage and though it would have taken less than a minute to take his boot off, shake the damn thing out, and put the boot back on, he’d elected not to.  It was his way of paying a small, continual penance for his sins.

They were two-thirds through a three-gig stint in London, which meant their stage was still set up. Harry had gotten himself back into the arena, climbed up onto the stage, and was now sitting on the edge of one side, forehead against the cool of a railing, legs and feet dangling over the edge, pebble in his boot.

He checked his phone, though he knew Louis hadn’t responded. His lock screen was a shot of a cracked sidewalk.

_Paris, nineteen days ago…_

Yanked back to the present, he knew Louis was there before he’d even heard him.  The air had electrified, the way it always did when Louis entered the same general space as Harry. He sat up a little straighter and only seconds later heard the soft padding of tennis shoes along the concrete floor below him, saw Louis come into view, looking up at him.

“Haz.”

He was trying hard to pretend that he didn’t know what Harry wanted.

“You’re angry with me.”

Louis sighed.  “I’m not angry with y - “

“You’re angry with me.”

One hand on his hip, Louis rubbed his eyes with his other hand, first finger and thumb pressing into them as if he had a sudden migraine.

Harry continued. “You say you’re fine and we’re fine and everything is fine but you’re not, we’re not, it’s not.”

Louis disappeared from view, before long on the stage, dropping down to sit beside Harry, complaining under his breath about, _‘nothing but a death trap, coming here after the lights are out_ ’.

They sat in silence, Harry wanting Louis to be honest and Louis being damned if he’d speak first. In an effort to keep from doing just that, he picked up Harry’s phone, tapping the home button to light it up. Harry made no move to stop him, waited.

“Is this….?”

“Paris. Yeah.”

“Where I…?”

“Told me you loved me. Yeah.”

“And you scratched our initials in the corner of the… I see it there…. an 'H’, an 'L’… 'HL’. You said…”

“That no one else would get it.”

“But we would.”

“Yeah.”

“Harry…”

“You’re angry.”

“Stop saying that! I’m not fucking angry! I’m… You told me that same day that you couldn’t do this, that we couldn’t be together, no matter how we felt, so fine. I told you I’d take whatever you could give, I agreed to that.”

“You said even a little is better than nothing.”

“I did.”

“And is it?”

When Louis didn’t answer for a long time, Harry said, “And now you’re angry.”

“I’m not. I just can’t…”

“A little isn’t better than nothing?”

“It’s a million times worse.”

“I tried to protect you.”

“Not very hard. The pictures of the two of you are everywhere.”

“It’s not serious.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Do you believe me when I say that I love you?”

“Yes, Harold, I believe you.”

“I’m being serious, don’t be snarky.”

“Don’t tell me how to be. You go for walks along the river with her, take her out to dinner, go to some…fucking ballet because she asks you to. Then we’re back on the road and you’re sneaking on the bus to sleep with me while the others are in the hotel. And you do it because you know I’ll let you. And I _do_ let you, I _always_ let you, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be a wee bit snarky about it. Yeah, yes, okay… I believe you love me but it doesn’t mean much more than a… pile of shit when I’m not first choice.”

“I explained to you…”

“Yeah, you sure did. You love me and you can’t make yourself stay away and you need me and you _blah blah fucking blah_ , but you know that if we try to put it in a box with a label, that box will eventually tear apart. You explained, and I heard, but it’s still shit, Harold, and you know it is.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that when you’re angry.”

“I wish you wouldn’t be such a martyr, _Harry_ , but we don’t live in a happy magic land where wishes come true.”

“You aren’t okay with this.”

“No. No, I am most definitely not okay with this. I hate this, I despise this, I detest it. It sucks, it hurts, it makes me never want to look at you again but I know I wouldn’t even make it a day. So, I’m telling you now: The next time you come to me to hold you or kiss you or make it better, I’m going to do it, because I’m powerless not to. But every time I heal you, you’re hurting me, and I need you to know that.”

“I do know that.”

“Good.”

Without having made eye contact with Harry once, Louis stood up and started to walk away using the path he’d followed in.

“I do love you.”  Harry’s voice was pained, it was etched into each of the four syllables that he knew what he was doing was unbelievably cruel, but he was as powerless to resist asking as Louis was to resist granting his requests.

Louis kept walking, dim light from the safety lamps reflecting off of his hair as he passed under where Harry sat again.

“I know, Harold.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1D One Shots are one-offs, 1,000 words or less and based on specific 1D lyrics. They feature the singer of that lyric and can be about a fandom ship (like Ziam) or that 1D member and a (usually) not-named gal/guy. And I do requests. :)
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at 1d-1shots . I toss up the new one-shots there first and take requests/prompts there as well. New to the fanfic thing, so (helpful) input is welcome!


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